Bubbling to the Surface
by Danielle Salvatore
Summary: Set months after Damon and Bonnie are brought back to life. Damon makes a confession to Bonnie. (Short one-shot)


**A/N: A short little Bamon thing to work out some of my feels brought on by the finale. I'm more of a TVD book fanfic writer and don't normally write for the show so I hope this turns out okay. Takes place sometime after Damon and Bonnie are restored to life by the Mystic Falls gang. **

"I broke up with Elena."

The words came out of nowhere and Bonnie found herself having to catch her coffee mug before it slipped from her fingers and crashed onto the kitchen floor. After collecting her bearings, she spun around to face the vampire who had spoken. "_What?"_

They were standing in her Grams's old house, which had thankfully been stabilized and watched over during the two years she and Damon had been in the other dimension; thanks to Jeremy and Caroline. They told her later that they had been determined to bring her back and weren't about to allow the house to be sold until there was absolutely no hope left.

Never in a million years did Bonnie ever believe that she would ever willingly invite Damon Salvatore of all people into her house, let alone be perfectly comfortable with him in it, but...things had changed over the last two years. Drastically.

Damon shrugged casually, but the serious glint in his light blue eyes was anything but casual. "I broke up with Elena."

Bonnie shook her head in brief aggravation. "I heard that the first time. I meant...why?"

She didn't know what to make of this sudden information. She had seen Damon yearn for Elena, fight to get back to Elena and going to great lengths to do so. And now he was trying to tell her that he had broken up with Elena only a few months after they had finally returned to the land of the living?

Damon was staring intently at her now. "You know why."

Bonnie suppressed a gulp at his words, recalling all of their...special moments that had taken place when they had been isolated from the others. The feel of his lips, the way his body had moved against hers, and the sensation of his hands moving across every part of her body...

It had started out of loneliness, simple as that. At the time, all they had was each other and neither of them thought that was ever going to change. But eventually, it grew into something more...at least on her side. But she had fought hard to suppress those feelings...both out of fear that they wouldn't be reciprocated and because she had fully believed that the idea of harboring any sort of feelings of that kind towards Damon Salvatore was completely illogical and wrong.

When the others had found a way to return her and Damon to life, it had been both a miracle and a nightmare. A blessing, because she was able to see everyone again and because she had hope that the "feelings" she had developed for Damon could eventually fade away with time and space and everything would be able to eventually return to normal but also a nightmare because well, despite being technically dead, she had finally found peace and sanctuary in the hold of the after life. A peace that would be completely ruined when she is placed back into the hellhole of Mystic Falls.

But she had been wrong...at least on the first account. The feelings she had developed for the blue eyed homicidal vampire had refused to fade and it ended up being the reason she couldn't being herself to try to rekindle her relationship with Jeremy.

But none of that changed the fact that what she felt for Damon terrified her beyond anything. Although she couldn't deny that it had saddened her a bit to see him return to Elena, she was comfortable with it at the same time. It was familiar territory, after all.

This was not.

She shook her head rapidly. "Damon, we _can't."_

His brow furrowed, and to his credit, he did look genuinely confused by her indignation as she said the words. "Why not?"

Bonnie sighed. "We just can't. And..._you _know why. We wouldn't work in that way. We barely even work as friends."

That wasn't necessarily true. Sure they still fought a lot, but if Bonnie was being honest with herself, she knew that the fighting was slowly turning into playful banter that was happening more and more often as the days went by...a form of banter that she actually enjoyed, although she would never admit that to him. But that still didn't change the fact that they were so fundamentally different...surely too different to ever be able to form a functional relationship. Sure she'd had her fair share of unwanted dreams and fantasies involving Damon ever since their return, but she never imagined or expected the chance for them to become a reality.

"I can't say I agree with that," he responded. He stepped closer to her and Bonnie resisted the urge to back further away.

"I drive you crazy," she shot back quickly. "And you do the same thing to me. We can't go twenty minutes without arguing about something. We wouldn't be able to make each other happy."

"Ahh but don't you see? That's part of the appeal." His signature smirk spread across his lips but only for a exceptionally short time. Soon enough, it vanished and the serious glint in his eyes returned. "However, i'm afraid you're wrong on that last comment."Before she could get another word out, he was suddenly standing directly in front of her, placing a hand on both her shoulders as his icy blue eyes locked with her green ones intently.

"I'm not going to lie and try to say that you don't drive me crazy. You do, but i've come to realize recently that might not be a bad thing."

Bonnie shook her head once more. "It is a bad thing. You have to understand...i'm _not _like Elena, Damon. I won't sit back and forgive you every time you do wrong towards people who don't deserve it. That won't become a pattern for me."

"You think I don't know that, judgy?" Damon narrowed his eyes and then, looking almost as if he was in some sort of trance state, he pulled her even closer to him, and she found that she couldn't bring herself to try to stop him. "I know you're not like Elena...you're blunt and upfront with me. You speak your mind and don't sugarcoat anything. It was an irritating aspect to get used to when all we had was each other but now, i've grown to like it."

His eyes locked with hers once more. "I haven't been able to get out of mind ever since we came back to Mystic Falls. And i've come to the conclusion that it's because I _want _you Bonnie. And when I say I want you, I mean _all _of you. I want your judginess, your honesty, your fights, and hell, even your aneurysms during the times I deserve them." He grinned at her and this time, she couldn't help but shoot a small smile back. "I know it won't be easy and it might not even work out but...I think what we went through together in the other dimension and what we _could _have makes it worth at least a try."

She sighed. "Damon..."

He cut her off. "If you can look me in the eye and tell me that you don't feel the same way, i'll drop the subject and never bring it up again. But I don't think you can."

Silence ensued between them and Bonnie could feel the air around them grow hotter and hotter by the seconds. She had been tripping over her words ever since this conversation had started but now, she found herself at a complete loss as to how to respond. But from the looks of it, he was being uncharacteristically patient, so she might as well use the time to fully and completely think over everything he had said.

He had left Elena. For her. That for one, was still a tough topic to believe. She had come back believing that the insane feelings she was having were one-sided and that everything on Damon's part had been strictly a temporary distraction from his loneliness. She knew he had grown to care for her in his own way and they had even become friends of sorts, but she had truly believed it was always going to be Elena for him in the end. But apparently, that wasn't the case at all.

And how did she feel about him? He drove her absolutely insane. He was arrogant, narcissistic, stubborn, dysfunctional, and at times, downright infuriating. But along with that came the things she liked. The way his blue eyes lit up on the rare times he genuinely smiled, which, she found, was becoming more and more frequent. His passion and determination, his unwillingness to give up even when the situations seem impossible, and the length he would go to save those he cared for. And she's found that all of those traits, both good and bad, made up a person that she had reluctantly grown to care for greatly...the person she had feelings for, even if she still didn't fully understand them.

When she finally responded, she spoke in a whisper. "You're right. I can't."

"That's what I thought."

And then his lips were on hers and Bonnie didn't have an ounce of the energy she needed to push him away, nor did she want to. Instead she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed back. Though she hadn't admitted it out loud, she had missed him.

The kiss was brief and sweet, and although a part of her instantly craved more, she knew it was the kind of kiss that was right for them in this moment...a kiss filled with promise for the future and new beginnings.

"I want to take things slow," she eventually said a bit breathlessly once they parted. She bit her lip. "I mean, I don't want to rush into things right away." As insane as it still may sound, she found that she really wanted _this, _whatever it was, to work. She kind of needed it to, even. And to do that, she wanted everything to go smoothly. And besides...whether Damon wanted to acknowledge it or not, he had just gotten out of a breakup, and with her best friend no less.

A smirk danced on the vampire's lips once more. "Considering we've already seen _every _part of each other already, I think it's a bit too late to start taking things slow, Bennett." At her stern glare he quickly continued. "I'm kidding. We'll go as slow as you need."

For the first time since the confrontation had begun, a genuine smile spread across Bonnie's lips. "Thank you."

She knew it wouldn't be easy...the others would surely have very strong reactions to this union when it came out, and then there was the two of them themselves. They were both passionate, stubborn people and putting the two of them together would certainly make sparks, good or bad, but it was worth the chance. She was tired of being complacent...of not going after the things she wanted, and it was time for that to change.

And as crazy as it may be, what she wanted was Damon Salvatore.


End file.
